


domestic

by collapsing-colette (sunnycider)



Series: Resting in Hateno Village (Linked Universe) [1]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Linked Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 02:20:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14632065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunnycider/pseuds/collapsing-colette
Summary: " “This reminds me of home,” Twilight admits softly, keeping his gaze steady ahead.Wild looks over his shoulder at him. “What does?”“Running errands, walking through town, being… domestic.” "the Linked Universe Boys™ get a chance to do some really stupid domestic chill garbage feat. house cleaning, grocery shopping, fishing, and some stuff with oranges that i promise makes sense in context i hope.





	domestic

**Author's Note:**

> hello!!! this is based on the Linked Universe thing by https://jojo56830.tumblr.com/ and you can see all of the LU content here: https://linkeduniverse.tumblr.com/
> 
> it's become one of my favourite gosh darn things ever, and it's actually my motivator to play as many LoZs as possible. i mean it. i bought windwaker HD the other day, and i'm screaming in Minish Cap and Twilight Princess and BoTW and OoT and-
> 
> anyway, have fun reading this sorry if the boys aren't written entirely accurately i haven't written fanfiction in literal years, and this is basically 4000+ words of me trying to learn how to write them because i made an AO3 account just to write this stuff and by god i'm not stopping now.

The group of heroes had managed to maneuver their way all the way to Hateno village in the Hero of Wild’s time. Wild had mentioned they could stop here for a few days, get a breather, and resupply while they rested at his home. Well, _house_. His home was still being rebuilt much like the rest of the Hyrule he supposedly once knew.

Regardless, it was big, warm, and a place of respite, so it was close enough.

Wild unlocks the front door and pushes it open. With the tap of a small panel besides the door, the lights come on, and he holds the door open for the others to enter. One by one, his fellow heroes shuffled into the house, a few taking more obvious snoopy looks than others, but Wild disregards it for now. “Make yourselves comfy. I recently had Bolson install a proper kitchen.”

“Bolson?” The Hero of Hyrule asks, poking at a flower resting in the dining table’s vase.

“The head of the construction company that sold and renovated the house,” Wild fills him in. “I helped one of his men build an entire town once.” He drags a hand down is face as the other hand shuts the door. “So many broken axes.”

“Anyway, thank you for letting us use this place,” adds Time, quickly getting them back on track. Wild nods and strips off his cloak and belts. Piece by piece his more adventure-necessary gear is set on the table, signature blue tunic included; he almosts look like a normal villager, save for the giant scars.

Twilight, who has been moving everyone’s bags towards the space under the stairs, glances over. “What’re you doing?”

“Making dinner. I’ll have to go get ingredients before I start. Extra cots and blankets are in the closet beneath the stairs; we can use those.”

“Yeah, there’s only one bed up here!” Wind leans over the railing of the loft above and points behind him. “It’s small, too.”

“Big enough for two of you to share-” Wild pauses as he see a blue apron folded on the counter. It has a note on it, but he tucks it into his back pocket for later. Quickly, he unfolds and puts it on, tying the waist band in the back into a sufficient albeit probably messy bow. Looking down, he sees his name embroidered in small letters on the front. He smiles and walks back into the main room. “-and the rest of us can sleep down here?”

“That sounds fine,” Legend says. “Need help with anything while you’re out?”

Wild blinks, mouth opening and closing slightly as if unsure of how to respond. “Well, uh… I don’t really… have anything let alone anything that needs to be done? Just relax, I guess.”

“I wanna go with you!” Wind shouts with a grin. He vaults over the loft balcony railing, and Wild manages to scramble and catch him before he hits solid ground. “We just got here, so I wanna see the town!”

“I’ll go too, in that case.” Twilight steps towards the both of them as Wind steps out of Wild’s hold. “I can see what we need for supplies.”

Time nods. “Don’t stay out too late.”

“Okay, _pops_ ,” Twilight responds, rolling his eyes a bit. “Come on.” Wind grabs Wild’s wrist, smiling at the minimal flinching this time, and pulls him out the door. Twilight follows shortly, shutting the entrance door behind him.

“We’ll need to move the table and chairs to the corner to make room for all of us,” says Four. Sky nods in agreement, and he claps his hands together, smiling.

“Let’s clean the place too while we’re at it! It’ll be a nice surprise for him when he gets back, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, the place needs it,” Warrior says. “Besides, knowing those dorks, they’ll be shopping for a while, probably.”

Time, having stripped himself of his armor while the others were discussing, rolls up his sleeves. “Then let’s get to it.”

 

Wild leads the way through Hateno as Twilight trails at his backside, looking around with curiosity. Twilight manages to keep himself in check, but Wind runs from shop front to shop front. He asks a lot of questions, most of which Wild answers briefly.

“You can _dye_ your clothes?! Like, just like that?” Wind makes a snap with his fingers, and Wild nods.

“I used to do it a lot.”

“It sounds like a waste of money, especially in a time like that,” Twilight says, raising a brow.

“It was worth it. Gathering the resources, the money, the courage to be dunked into an entire bath of extremely hot coloured water at the pull of a lever.” Wild directs them towards a grocers’. “It was a nice break from everything, getting to do something just for fun instead of the usual.”

“That… makes sense.”

Once inside, Wild pulls away from the two others. He nods in thanks to a girl at the door who hands him a woven basket for shopping. “So, what do we need?” Wind asks.

“Well, the main ingredient is hearty blue-shelled snails, but I’ll have to go to the Necluda Sea real fast to get a few. Meanwhile, here we need rock salt, goat butter, and rice. The veggies I need we already have. Oh, and a fish.”

“Matter what kind?” Wind perks up.

“A porgy, but other than that, no.”

“I’m on it!” Before either of the older heroes can stop him, Wind runs out of the store with a wave to the shopfront woman as he rushes towards the river nearby.

“Can porgy even be found in the river by your house?”

Wild just shrugs. “No? He’ll figure it out eventually. I’ll grab one from the sea too when I go just for the heck of it, but uh… maybe we should just-”

“-let him have this? Good idea.” Twilight sighs and walks to one of the counters. He grabs a few chunks of rock salt and puts them in Wild’s basket. Wild does the same to some Hylian rice, but he frowns when he finds the store is out of goat butter.

“We’ll have to stop by the shop further uphill.”

“Alright.”

“Or we could go to Kakariko? They always have it in stock.”

Twilight crosses his arms, a firm stare of ‘no’ at the thought of the teleport magic. He hates the way it makes her voice jingle in his mind.

“Uphill it is,” Wild says quickly, obviously avoiding any real debate. He quickly pays for his things and waddles out of the store when they’ve been wrapped properly in a carrying cloth. Twilight follows suit, keeping a close eye on Wild. He also, of course, squints when he sees Wind at the river behind the shop, hyper focused on his fishing bobber as it bounces up and down with the flow of the river. When he points it out to Wild, he just smiles and keeps walking, almost giving a small laugh.

“This reminds me of home,” Twilight admits softly, keeping his gaze steady ahead.

Wild looks over his shoulder at him. “What does?”

“Running errands, walking through town, being… domestic.”

“Oh. Is your hometown… nice?”

“Mhm. Everyone knows each other, works hard, supports one another. What about yours?”

“I… don’t remember.”

Twilight feels his expression twist a bit, and it takes all of his willpower not to let it contort any further into regret. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s just focus on hunting down that butter.”

A small pause before Twilight snorts.

“Butter hunt,” Twilight says. Wild tries to force down his smile.

“Don’t phrase it like that; it sounds so stupid out loud.”

“ _Butter hunt._ ”

Wild finally breaks out into small snickers, desperately muffling full laughter with his free hand. Twilight bops his shoulder with a closed fist.

“Good to see you smile. You said it was up ahead, right? Let’s hurry.” Twilight walks ahead, giving his companion a quick smile in return. Wild calms himself and blinks, taking it in for a moment, before he jogs to meet Twilight’s side.

 

“Stop prodding the weapons on the wall and help us.” Legend huffs in Warrior’s direction. Warrior seemingly got distracted by the several wall-mounted weapons within Wild’s abode. He rolls his eyes.

“But _look_ at them. It’s like they’re just begging to be used. Especially these nice ones.” Warrior points to a few, obviously finer weapons than the rest. His trails a finger down the length of a beautiful trident. “How does he even know how to wield all of these?”

“Training,” the others all answer in unison. Sky and ‘Rule laugh while the others all share a look. ‘Rule adds a small ‘duh’ at the end, and Warrior gives a pout.

“Yeah, I _know_ that!” Another small round of quiet laughs before Time gives a small shove to Warrior’s back with his knee (his hands occupied with some spare blankets he had found in the chest beneath the stairs).

“We likely don’t have much longer. Go wipe down the windows outside then inside then tend to the flowers,” he instructs. Warrior sighs and shuffles out of the house. Of course, he shuffles right back in when he remembers he forgot the supplies to follow orders. He gathers them and back out he goes.

“This’ll almost be like a slumber party.” Sky smiles as he continues, “Everyone sleeping on cots in a friend’s house, talking over a good meal, gossipping-”

“-possible pillow fights,” ‘Rule finishes for him with a similar grin.

Time gives a breathy chuckle. “Next thing you’ll be saying is we play spin the bottle and truth or dare.” He pauses in thought. “Or pass-the-orange.”

“What’s pass-the-orange?” asks Warrior, leaning an opened window. Time’s eyes sparkle, and everyone feels a strange sense of excitement wash over them.

“You split into teams and try to pass an orange without using your hands. Hilarity ensues. It’s one of the greatest Kokiri game traditions of all time.”

 

Wind hums to himself as he continues collecting fish. He smiles at his newest catch but sighs shortly thereafter. He mumbles, “Still no porgy. Darn.”

“Whatcha doing? Where’re the other two?” Warrior asks quietly, matching Wind’s tone. Wild holds up his newest fish and waggles it with pride.

“Catching dinner!” He puts it in his pile sitting on a spare cloth a nearby villager. “The others are shopping and then going to get snails.”

“Ew.” Warrior grimaces as he takes his seat next to Wind. “Snails? Really?”

“He’s made us tasty things out of worse, so it’s not _that_ weird.”

“Still, snails are slimy and gross.” Warrior takes his seat next to Wind and stares down into the water and its reflection. He sighs and pulls off the handkerchief he had put on while cleaning the windows.

“What about you?”

“Hm?”

“What’re _you_ doing?”

“Oh, uh-” Warrior smiles nervously. “We’re cleaning his house. It was the others’ idea, but I finished up my end of the work, so here I am.”

“Cool!” Wind grins and Warrior can’t help but grin back. He watches the younger reel another fish in with expertise. He gives a small clap.

“I knew you were good at this, but damn. With none of them around to disturb the fish-”

“We both know who you’re talking about, it’s okay.”

“Right.” He snickers. “Anyway, you’re pretty nifty with that thing when you’ve got the time and peace to fish properly.”

“It’s a patience thing, mostly. Knowing to be quiet when fishing, where the fish like to gather, and all that is important, but none of it matters if you don’t take your time.”

“Huh.”

Wind eyes him closely, scooting closer into Warrior’s space. He holds out the rod, line reeled back in. “Wanna try?”

“W-well, I _would_ , but-” Warrior tries to play off his doubt with his trademark confident smile, but Wind only rolls his eyes.

“C’mon! I’ll teach you.” He forces the rod’s handle into Warrior’s hands. Tiny fingers move the other’s larger ones into the proper placements on the rod’s handle. “These have to hold on tight while these need to be near the reel.”

“Understood.”

“Hold down this thingy, the bail, to let the line go, but only do it when you’re casting. Crank this doohickey to reel the line back in to recast or when you get a catch.”

“Okay.”

“Keep your hand on the crank when the line is out since the bail will go back when you let go of it, locking the line from going outward. You wanna be prepared to reel in a big one.”

“This is _far_ more complicated than I thought.”

Wind snickers. “You get used to it pretty fast, though. Okay, now let’s cast it down into the pond and see how it goes.” Warrior smiles, but this time, it’s _genuinely_ confident.

“Let’s-!” Wind slaps his hand over Warrior’s mouth and shh’s him, squinting. Warrior nods, and he lets go, but the smile hasn’t faded. Much more quietly, he tries again, “Let’s do this.”

 

Twilight eyes the groceries Wild dumped into his arms so he could check the Sheikah slate. “The area we need to be in is just past the research tower, down the hill to the beach, and a little ways down the shore,” he says. He glances up hesitantly as he continues. “We’ll… have to use the teleport to get back, though.”

Twilight sighs. “That’s fine. Let’s get this back to the house while we make the trip.” Wild nods and starts heading back to the house when they both stop and stare at Wind and Warrior sitting near the pond behind the dye shop. Warrior is fumbling through the actual use of the fishing rod, but Wind’s enthusiastic assistance keeps him steady.

Wild watches with a curious gaze, and its only torn away when he feel Twilight’s elbow to his arm. Twilight points to the rod before giving a pointed look at Wild, eyebrow raised. Wild stares back until Twilight caves and begins walking further along the path.

“I’ll deliver it,” he says. “I’ll meet you at the research tower.”

Wild points to it in the distance, and it earns him a nod before they separate. Twilight winces a bit as Wild taps on his slate and vanishes into lines of blue light and then nothingness before him.

Despite not being teleported himself, the shiver of it runs through him at the sight, and he forces that little voice to hush as he crosses the bridge and walks inside the house. He stops dead in his tracks and squints at everyone hustling about with… oranges?

“I’m not going to ask what happened in here, but can one of you please put these into the ice box? We’re making a quick trip out of town.”

“The three of you?” Time asks, slowly hiding a handful of oranges behind his back. He keeps his face as focused as ever, however. Twilight shakes his head as he leans and watches the movement. Time frowns. “Then where’s…?”

“Teaching our resident knight-captain how to fish.”

“I see. Then don’t go too far off. It’s going to get dark soon.” Twilight straightens, nods, and turns on his heels back out the door, and Time sighs and turns to face the one person lying on the floor in the kitchen, just out of view of the front door: Sky, who had tired out post their brief game.

He always did have poorer stamina despite his skill with a blade.

Four and Legend are balancing oranges on him while ‘Rule is cleaning dishes. “What’re you doing?” Legend looks up and shrugs.

“Exactly what it looks like.”

“We wanted to see how many oranges we can balance on him before he wakes up,” Four answers properly. “We’ve got 20 so far.” Legend puts another one down, this time on Sky’s forehead, and Four corrects himself. “21.”

Time throws one of the oranges in his own grasp at Legend’s face, but he expertly dodges, leading the orange to hit ‘Rule’s head instead. He startles and drops a dish on the floor. As he whips his head around to see the culprit, Time drops all oranges in his hands and raises them up in innocence. He tries to hold back a laugh as best he can, but the restrained smile makes it obvious. The oranges bounce and roll towards the sleeping Sky. Legend picks up the one that hit ‘Rule and puts it on Sky’s nose.

“22,” Four snickers.

 

Wild waves his hand as Twilight approaches the research tower. Twilight gives a small wave back as he comes to a halt in front of him. “So, just past here, huh?”

“Mhm. You can use my paraglider to get down,” Wild says as he leads the way to the cliffside that looks down upon the beach.

“And you?” Twilight asks, frowning. They both look down once they arrive, Wild silent until then.

“I’ll drop down the cliff edges.”

“They’re too steep. You’ll hurt yourself trying.” Wild shrugs, and Twilight’s frown increase. “I can just use my clawshot to ease my way down, so use your glider.”

“It’ll take too long. You don’t want to be in this area at night,” he responds. Twilight opens his mouth to object, but when he sees Wild move to test the rocks and examine the cliff properly, he shuts it. He grabs the paraglider and, with skill learnt from observing the other, begins his descent.

Wild is halfway down this cliff by the time Twilight lands. He puts away the glider into his bag and watches Wild climb. His fingers twitch as he eyes his clawshot as he does so. Twilight doesn’t close his bag or move that hand as he continues to observe. His hand rests solidly on the device when he sees Wild pry one hand away from the wall of the cliff to use the slate. Twilight’s entire body tenses, but Wild remains calm despite the brief pressed line of his lips in something Twilight can’t read from this distance.

Wild tucks the slate away and lets go of the cliff, landing on the very small ledge a few feet beneath him. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Twilight step forward at the motion. Wild gently waves it off as he pulls the slate back out. With a few taps, he can hear the beeps that detect nearby hearty blue-shelled snails via the sensor.

“That way,” Wild shouts from above. He points further down the beach. “There’s a group of them there.”

“I’m not leaving you, so hurry up and get down here!” Twilight yells back. The words feel weird as he says them, but he shoves that very strange feeling down _very_ fast. He looks to see, briefly, where his protege is pointing, but as he does so, he feels droplets of something his his head.

Meanwhile, Wild nods, caught off guard at the words, and does as told. He moves his first foot down off the ledge to a protruding rock, and when the weight feels steady, he continues, but as his second foot goes down lower, he feels his hands slip when the first rock jiggles loose. He desperately tries to regain his grip, but his skin and the rock beneath are slick with the drizzle hitting the rocks. Wild almost gets a hand back up on that ledge-

_Crack-!_

Twilight spins to retake his gaze upon Wild, who was free falling from almost a hundred feet up. His gut twisted at the sight, but no time to think about it. He ran forward as fast as one can on wet sand, and he pulls his clawshot from his bag. Expertly, he aims and fires at the base of the cliff and lets himself be pulled to it. Dropping the hookshot, Twilight reaches last-moment and catches Wild in his arms bridal-style. He winces at the feeling of sharp pain in his ankle, winces further as he leans to shield Wild with his back from the falling rocks from the ledge above.

Wild opens his eyes, it hitting him that he’d even closed them at all. They only widen further when he looks up. “You-!”

“Are you alright?” Twilight asks without hesitation. “I _told_ you they’d be too dangerous.”

“I- I should be asking-” Wild forced himself out of Twilight’s hold and rushed to check the damage. “You shouldn’t’ve-”

“What, save you?”

“I would’ve been fine.”

“Not from that high up!”

“I’ve fallen from worse and came out fine.”

“That’s not-!” Twilight steps to plant his hands on Wild’s shoulder, but the sharp pain in his ankle hits again, and he falters. Wild rushes to catch _him_ this time. “That’s not the _point_.”

A silence hits the both of them, Twilight staring dead at Wild’s face with a look reminiscent of one Twilight himself might receive from their leader. Wild curled inward a bit and tried to avoid looking back, and the other forced himself to soften.

“Did you know it would rain?” Twilight asks gently yet unwavering. Wild hesitates before nodding.

“I… checked the weather on the slate before you met up with me.”

“And then… again while you were climbing down?” Twilight presses. Wild nods again, and Twilight sighs. He continues, understanding coming to his mind and words. “Using the clawshot to scale down so tall of a cliff in rain without the proper gear would’ve resulted in a worse fall, and the change in wind would’ve made it impossible for both of us to use the glider safely.”

“Y-yeah.”

“Why didn’t you just _say_ that?”

“I…” Wild trails off in thought. He shivers from his soaking clothes, but pays it no mind. “I was always alone,” he admits quietly. “That’s a habit I never got the chance to form.”

“Well, you’re not anymore, so we’re going to work on your communication skills, for the goddess’ sake. Now, let’s go get those snails.” Twilight, despite his ache in his leg and back, pushes forward in the drizzling rain down the beach, leaving Wild to trail right behind him.

They manage to get to a part of the beach that’s covered via an extended cliff above, and it’s there that they get a handful of these big critters a piece. Twilight manages to snag a few porgy in the water Wild-style while they’re at it. Wild counts, them, and when he confirms they have enough, he pulls out the slate. Twilight takes a big breath and uses his free hand to link arms with Wild’s. Wild only hits the button to go when Twilight gives him the good-to-go.

 

Warrior and Wind rush into the house, hands covering their heads save for Warrior’s left that still holds the fishing rod and Wind’s right dragging the bag of caught fish. Rain pours loudly outside. “Ugh, just as I was getting good at it, too!” Warrior complains. Time and ‘Rule hand them both towels.

“It’s alright! We still caught a lot!” Wind grins and pulls the bag forward to show it off. Time smiles and pats Wind’s head.

“Nice work.” Before they shut the door, Time steps in front of the doorway. He looks around, and the more he looks, the more his brow furrows. “Where’re the other two? They should be back by now.”

“Yes, it’s getting dark, isn’t it?” ‘Rule asks. Time nods before grabbing a spare of their cloaks and tossing it over his shoulders, hood up.

“I’ll go look for them.”

Time shuts the door as he leaves and begins jogging across the bridge and past the

models houses. He was about to bypass the shrine entirely and head straight for town when Wild’s signature teleportation noise his his ears upon the hill. Time rushed to the shrine as both Twilight and Wild materialized with their catches in hand. Hands?

“What happened?! You’re injured and soaking!” Time catches them both as they wobble. Twilight hobbles on his good foot while Wild sneezes with a quick turn away from them both. The former opens his mouth, but Time shakes his head. “No, nevermind, let’s discuss this inside.”

“After dinner,” Twilight says, glancing at Wild, who offers a very slight smile in return.

“Fine, after dinner.”

 

With everyone dried off, things settle down again. Twilight tells them all what happened while Wind and Warrior wait excitedly to speak of their fishing lessons. All of them, save for Wild, are gathered in the downstairs main living area with blankets and cots setup for all of them to sleep in. It really is like a slumber party, Time thinks briefly.

The smell of delicious cooking wafts through the house, and upon a citrus smell joining it, Time pardons himself and enters with a small knock to the doorway. Wild briefly turns his head and nods in acknowledgment. “Putting those oranges to use?”

“Mm. I don’t recall how we got so many.”

“Right, yes, that. Don’t worry about it.” Time clears his throat and strides to his side. He rolls up his sleeves again. “Do you need any help?”

“No thank you, it’s alright. I’m used to doing it by myself.”

“But you’re-”

“Not… anymore. I know.” Wild glances up at him, and after a moment, he slides the cutting board towards Time, and he holds the knife by the blade for the elder to take it by the handle. He looks away. “He… and I… had a discussion about it at the beach.”

Time takes the cutting knife and begins to chop the cilantro with a decent hand. “That’s good,” he says.

“...how are his injuries?”

“Minor. Took one potion to fix him right as rain; don’t beat yourself up over it.”

Wild tosses the rice and adds chopped vegetables in the pan to his left with a wooden spoon. He grabs some of the cilantro and sprinkles it in. “It’s my fault.”

“He doesn’t think so.”

“But it is.”

“Then-” Time steps in to stir the rice when Wild moves over to cook the fish. “-repay him with something only you can do for him.”

Wild pauses and thinks about it for a moment. “...I don’t have something like that.”

“Yes, you do,” Time says, chuckling. “A delicious home-cooked meal you worked hard on and keeping him company.” He shoots a pointed look when Wild goes to argue. Silence takes them, but it’s broken by Wild with a soft:

“Okay.”

Time smiles and pats his shoulder. “Good. Now what do I do next?”

“Oh, um, add some Goron spice, please. I keep it in the cupboard.”

“Powerful stuff.”

“Clears the sinuses and adds a big kick.”

“Then in it goes.” Time does as he’s asked, and the two of them continue like this until the meal is done and prepped. It doesn’t take long after Time’s call for dinner for the rest of the boy to rush in and grab their plates.

Conversation carries on cheerfully. Wild waits to grab his plate last despite Time’s insistence he do otherwise, and he takes his seat by Twilight. Twilight shoots him a pleased expression, and Wild returns it.

“I get what you mean now,” Wild says to him quietly. Twilight, mouth full of food, tilts his head like a confused puppy. “About the whole domestic thing.” Twilight swallows and offers another smile. He elbows Wild gently and responds just as low.

“You could get used to it, right?”

“Yeah… Maybe..” Wild takes a hot bite of fish and chews, but Twilight can tell it’s to hide his bittersweet expression.

“Then after this is over, let’s make sure that happens. No objections.”

“...alri-.”

“Hey!” Wind shouts, picking up a spare orange and cutting Wild off. His eyes gleam as he grins. “It’s no fair we missed playing games! I call for a rematch!”

Wild and Twilight share a knowing gaze and laugh with some of the others. Time braces himself for sweet orange impact.

“Here we go again.”

**Author's Note:**

> okay, for clarity, here's more about "pass-the-orange": http://www.bestpartygames.co.uk/games/pass-the-orange


End file.
